Travis Starnes

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 28

We had a game the next day, which usually meant David and I helped Coach Dean get the equipment we’d need either carried over to the field or packed up for a trip to the bus. Today was a home game, which meant a lot of trips to the baseball field. Normally, the Coaches would have already started pulling stuff up, since they preferred to stay inside where it was warm, while David and I made all the trips back and forth, so I was surprised to find nothing pulled out of the equipment lockers, ...

Extraction (John Taylor #8) - Chapter 5

Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti

The flight took just over twelve uncomfortable hours. White Mountain had acquired a Beechcraft King Air that had clearly seen some miles as a cargo plane. Most of the seats had been pulled out of it to make room for cargo and replaced with jump seats mounted on the walls. The paint was faded and it was vibrating so hard for the whole trip, it was all but impossible to get any sleep.

It was just after two in the morning when they landed, al...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 27

Chef never made it down for my practice. I knocked on his door when I finished conditioning, dripping in sweat, and he told me to just go home and he’d talk to me later.

I messaged Kat’s disposable phone when I got home letting her know I’d talked to Chef and he was working on it, but that I didn’t have any answers yet. I also tried to add in some encouraging words to hopefully break through the anxiety I knew she was feeling, waiting to find out what her fate was. That was one ...

Update to Fanfare - Chapter 26

If you've read Chapter 26 of Fanfare before today, go back and re-read at least the last third, as there has been a major rewrite of that section completely changing one of the building sub-plots.

Extraction (John Taylor #8) - Chapter 4

Taylor got to his car and pulled out his laptop. He wasn’t a computer person like Whitaker, but he had time to kill and he wanted to do some more research before he got into this. For one, he needed to find out what exactly Packer was doing here and he wanted to find out what this project was all about. He opened his email and saw Bryant had come through.

He had to jump through some hoops to decode everything, not that this was overly sensitive data. Mostly it was just that Bryant had...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 26 (Re-Write)

**The last half of this chapter has been completely rewritten to change a subplot as of 11/1/2021**

Considering what happened at the game on Saturday, I wasn’t surprised to get pulled out of first period almost as soon as it started. I swear I heard my teacher sigh in annoyance when the office aide came in with a slip with my name on it. Mrs. Morgan didn’t even say anything to me, just pointed at Vice-principal Keller’s office, since I knew the drill. I sat outsid...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 25

My anger over the baseball game had turned into self-pity by the time I got to the Blue Ridge to eat a quick lunch and start training. I could recognize that it was happening; but between Kat’s being pulled from school and my getting, at least temporarily, benched had thrown me. I knew it wasn’t helpful, but I couldn’t stop feeling sorry for myself, finding multiple ways where both things were ultimately my fault.

I should have gotten away and avoided Harry all together, because I...

Extraction (John Taylor #8) - Chapter 3

Haymarket, Virginia

Taylor called the number Claire had given him and never made it past the secretary, who left him on hold for ten minutes after getting Taylor’s name, only to return with a time and place to be the next day. Taylor tried to ask follow-up questions but was stonewalled by a repeat of the time and place he’d have to go to get any information.

Whitaker begged off any celebration, since given her age and how early in the pregnancy this was, she w...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 24

I wasn’t surprised when I got to school the next day and Mr. Keller intercepted me and asked me to come to his office. I will say it was a different experience knowing what I was being called into his office for and knowing that I wasn’t actually in trouble. I’d been in here several times since the start of the school year, but this was the first time I hadn’t actually been nervous doing it.

“I’m assuming your attorney talked to you already about the restraining order?” 2021-10-23 13:08:52 +0000 UTC View Post

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 23

I started to think I might have made a mistake pushing Hanna by the end of the week. Although we hadn’t ended up on a new normal since I got my car, most days Kat and Hanna would sit in the stands together and watch my baseball practice and talk until it was time for me to go to the Blue Ridge. For the few days before the fight between Hanna and her mom, Hanna had still gone to the Blue Ridge with us, at least for a little while, before heading home. Since the fight, she’d had various exc...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 22

I couldn’t tell the guys right away, because there was a third person with them when they pulled up. I guessed he was the bass player Seth had been talking about, and I didn’t want to start talking about gigs with someone if he wasn’t going to stick.

“This is Paulie,” Seth said when they walked up, confirming my guess.

“Hey, good to meet you,” I said, offering my hand.

“Yeah, good to meet you too, kid,” he said, shaking it limply.

That set me on edge,...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Epilogue

It took hours to round up the survivors and a full day to remove all of the bodies in the streets. Thankfully, there had been little damage outside of the palace, since all of the fighting had been either inside the palace building itself or in the plains outside of the city.

“How bad is it?” the Emperor asked when Ky rode through the barriers now surrounding the palace complex and to the small gathering on the steps of the palace.

Faenius hadn’t taken any chances, despite t...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 37

Even though the crowd broke for their horses, it was still slow going to the center of town, with the mass of Romans fleeing increasing, packing together tighter and tighter.

“Leave the horses,” Ky said. “We’ll have to go on foot from here.”

They tied the horses up to one side, although Ky was fairly certain one of the fleeing Romans would get the idea to take the unattended mounts so they could make a faster escape from the city. It took more time for them to push throu...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 36

Ky watched the centurions and Optio, who’d been sent to help work with the Picts, carry more wounded Romans who’d only volunteered to help train them. So far they had been at this all day, and very little progress had been made. For the Picts, fighting was a way of life and they went at it full tilt. Except for when they were young, the only training someone got was at the end of another man’s ax. If they survived the experience, they might learn from it and become better warriors. If n...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 35

Instead of staying in the palace, Ky relocated to the Seventh Legion’s camp, since they were the closest to where the Picts were being set up. Before settling down for the night, he made a ride through the Pict camps, to check on the conditions. Despite protests from both his lictores and Velius, Ky only took his three guards currently on duty.

While he had put them between two legions to keep an eye on the Picts, just in case, he didn’t want them to feel like prisoners either since...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 21

The new song, especially the guitar intro, was still on my mind the next day after baseball practice, and I mostly wanted to just get done with training so I could get back home to work on it. All that focus meant I was a little annoyed when Hanna announced she needed to run home before we could go to the Blue Ridge.

“I don’t suppose you can drop us off and then go back for your textbook?” I asked.

Okay, I was being a little bit selfish, but the bug had hit me and I couldn�...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 34

Although he believed Talogren’s word that he would get warriors willing to go south and help defend against the Carthaginian invasion, Ky wasn’t sure he’d actually been successful until the first of those men started to arrive at the border. By the end of the morning of the third day, when they needed to march, he had even managed to beat his own estimate with the final total coming to just over five-thousand one-hundred. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the fighting men. Many of them ha...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 20

“Have you heard from your lawyer yet?” Kat asked when I met her and Hanna by the stands after baseball practice.

She’d already asked me the same question when we went to school that morning and I didn’t know why she thought I’d somehow received a call from him since then, but Kat had started to grow anxious, asking if I’d heard anything for the last four days in a row.

“No,” I said.

Pointing out how unlikely it would have been would have only made Kat feel ba...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 33

“What the hell are you thinking?” Lucilla asked as soon as they began their walk back to the Roman lines.

It had taken them some time to get all of the Romans ready to travel and Ky knew it was going to be a long and very cold night for most of them. It had taken him hours to run the distance between the Roman wall and the Pict camp, but it would take the entire night for the wounded and exhausted Romans to stagger their way back. Ky had considered making camp for the night, but the...

Extraction (John Taylor #8) - Chapter 2

Taylor stood there, open-mouthed.

“Who is it?” Whitaker called from the other room.

“Come in, I guess,” Taylor said, stepping aside and gesturing for Claire to come inside.

“Thanks,” she said, as he closed the door behind her and led her into the living room.

“Loretta,” Taylor said, “This is Claire Massey. Claire, this is my wife Loretta and our daughter Kara.”

“Your ex-fiancé?” Whitaker asked, sitting up in surprise.

“Nash, actua...

Update to The Sword of Jupiter - Chapter 31

If you're following along with the Sword of Jupiter, I just found an error that caused some characters names to change in Chapter 31 (luckily, it was a character that hadn't had a lot of time, so he only appeared in this chapter so far.  he'd been previously referenced in Chapter 30, but there he was named correctly).

It's only in a few places, so if you don't want to re-read the whole chapter, the legion that is on the border between Roman and Pict lands is the 4th legion (not the...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 32

Ky moved across the frozen terrain at a jog. While he was capable of moving rapidly for a long period of time before tiring, half of his concentration was on the feed from his drone’s thermal camera, showing him natives and animals crawling across the wooded landscape that he had to avoid.

Ky had sent the drone ahead to work out where the Picts were headed and was pretty sure he’d found the location of their camp. For such a large raiding party, it was a pretty small affair, with on...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 19

I remained on guard around Kat for several days, wondering if there’d be any fallout from my rejection. I’d tried to soften the blow as best I could, but that was one of the major things that triggered her condition, and the last thing I wanted was to make her worse. That was the main reason I’d said no in the first place.

Oddly, by the next day, she was back to acting like herself, almost like the entire experience never happened. I knew she was good at compartmentalizing things ...

Extraction (John Taylor #8) - Chapter 1

Somalia, 20 miles east of Berbera

“Scott, do you have that list of the bids,” Cameron Lambert asked, sticking his head over the edge of his cubicle.

“Not yet. We’re supposed to get the final list by this afternoon.”

“You’re kidding? We’re supposed to be delivering this thing next week and they’re yelling at me from upstairs that they need all the bids in now, so they can make the final decision by Friday. I can’t go back and tell them ‘...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 18

I was still flying so high the next day from the gig, that it took me a while to realize Kat hadn’t come by like she said she would. While I wasn’t upset that I got out of studying, Kat had practically made a religion out of punctuality. I tried to call her a few times, but didn’t get any answer. I almost called Hanna, but by the time I decided something might be wrong, she was at work and I didn’t want to bother her when I didn’t actually know anything. I told myself that it might ...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 31

Ky pinged Lucilla again, but she never answered, although that might have been because they were busy and not because she chose to ignore him. Since he’d been up the entire night before, he had to sleep this time, although it was restless, his mind showing him nightmare scenarios of what could happen to her if the raiding parties found her group.

He woke up in a cold sweat, his heart racing, which was a strange sensation. Although no one knew for sure, most people agreed that the impl...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 17

Eugene met us at the back door when we got to the Wild Cat. I assume he had some kind of camera set up and I do remember his office being pretty close to the back, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise.

“Charlie, good to see you.”

“Hey,” I said, shaking his hand. “This is my friend Hanna. She wanted to watch us practice and see the show from backstage. She’s going to college in the fall for talent management, and she wanted to get a sense of what this kind of thing wa...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 16

I squished my way into school Friday morning. Mom said she could get my clothes clean, but there wasn’t much we could do about my shoes, which were still pretty wet the next morning. We’d washed them with dish detergent, so they didn’t smell, although I’m sure they would after a day of me walking in them.

The whole day sucked. I was uncomfortable thanks to my feet being wet all day and Coach Bryant had decided it was the day to lay into me about ‘poor preparedness’ because I...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 30

Ky’s guards said nothing as they accompanied him the rest of the way to his quarters or as they stood watch outside his room. Had Ky not been so distracted himself, he might have noticed the looks that passed between them or realized how public the display had been, but he was preoccupied with thoughts of Lucilla for the rest of the night.

While he’d thought well of Sara and had even hoped for some kind of pairing with her, thoughts of her had never distracted him from his duty. Wor...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 15

The rest of the day I thought about Rowan’s suggestions, but between training with Chef, practicing with Willie, homework, and working with Hanna to come up with some kind of plan to help Kat.

On the Kat front, we were having no luck. We went through women's support groups, forums, and chat boards for victims and survivors of abuse and help columns, but all of their advice boiled down to ‘tell someone if you’re in trouble.’ Someone had to have faced a similar situation, where th...